


Peace Comes To Them On Quiet Feet

by inexplicifics



Series: The Accidental Warlord and His Pack [28]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27087436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inexplicifics/pseuds/inexplicifics
Summary: Yennefer of Vengerberg is one of the most powerful - and definitely one of the mostfeared- mages on the continent. She has slain armies, built impossible portals, and hauled Witchers back from the brink of death.The Witchers of Kaer Morhen, however, hold her in high esteem for quite a different sort of spell.
Relationships: Eskel & Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Geralt/Eskel/Jaskier (mentioned)
Series: The Accidental Warlord and His Pack [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683661
Comments: 140
Kudos: 2311





	Peace Comes To Them On Quiet Feet

There is really only one problem with throwing her lot in with the Warlord of the North and his wild army, Yennefer decides, pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace in the very nice, if rather unadorned, suite of rooms she’s been given. Unfortunately, that problem is that Witchers have no _fucking_ idea what to do with a court mage, apart from setting up a communications network. Their own mages are _research_ mages - a pack of deeply unpleasant men and women, so thoroughly engrossed in their own experiments that Yen’s honestly not sure they’ve even noticed her arrival - and don’t seem to have much to do with the day-to-day life of the keep. Triss, of course, has settled in immediately, fascinated by the mutagens and the potions the Witchers use to enhance their already-astonishing skills. Seraphina has decided the Crane Witchers are delightful, with their penchant for intricate new weaponry and explosions. Istredd has taken his assignment to Caingorn with good grace, allowing that there are some very interesting ruins up in the mountains, which might well make for interesting excavations when he’s not called on for the Warlord’s needs. Lytta is settling in nicely down in Hagge, making friends with the dwarves of Mahakam. Bianca has happily taken up residence in Ard Carraigh, to advise King Szymon and allow him swift communication with his overlord. Adrianna has decided that spending time out with the Witcher patrols, testing her combat spells and developing new ones, is the best way to entertain herself that she’s ever found, and Tiziana is out wandering through the Warlord’s lands looking for hidden trouble by herself.

So it’s just Yen stuck in Kaer Morhen without any defined duties, because no one on the Warlord’s Council seems to know what to ask her to _do_.

She hisses between her teeth and whirls to stalk out of the room. Pacing back and forth isn’t going to satisfy her; she needs to _move_ , and the long cold halls of Kaer Morhen will give her plenty of space for that.

It’s quite late - honestly it might be past midnight, Yen’s not sure and doesn’t care - and the halls are essentially deserted. Yen makes a circuit of the floor her rooms are on, hisses again, and heads down a level to the even longer hallways that hold the rooms for the Witchers.

She’s so absorbed in her own brooding that it takes her a few minutes to realize that unlike the near-deserted halls on her suite’s level, these halls are...surprisingly loud.

Witchers, it turns out, _snore_.

She pauses at a junction between corridors, startled out of her contemplations, to listen in awe to the cacophony.

There’s a chorus of astonishingly _deep_ snores coming from off to her left, and a sort of high-pitched snorting off to her right, and from down the hall in front of her is an irregular sort of _whine_ that mixes with all the other sounds to produce a noise which is, frankly, appalling and hilarious.

Oh, and _that’s_ not a snore at all, she realizes, covering her mouth to muffle an undignified bout of laughter. Oh no, she knows what _those_ moans are, and wow, someone _is_ having a very good night, aren’t they? _She_ hasn’t managed to find her way into a Witcher’s bed yet - well, into _Geralt’s_ bed, she’s hardly going to aim any lower than the Warlord himself - but when she does manage it, if he’s as enthusiastic as whoever she’s overhearing right now, it should be a damn good time. She hadn’t realized Witcher voices could hit that octave.

...It can’t be _pleasant_ , trying to sleep in the middle of a cacophony like this. And Yen knows Witcher hearing is a lot stronger than hers is. It must be even worse for them - unless perhaps they like the noise?

Hm.

She heads back to her own rooms thoughtfully.

*

“No, we don’t particularly like hearing each other snoring - or fucking, for that matter,” Eskel says, giving Yen a curious look. “But there’s not enough room to spread out much further than we are.”

“Well then,” Yen says. “Have I got your leave to cast a spell on the keep?” It was one of the conditions of the oath she and her companions swore: they’re not to use any magic on the keep or its inhabitants without permission from the Warlord or his Council, unless it’s in self-defense.

“Explain,” Eskel says, and listens thoughtfully to her plans, pointing out several possible flaws. Yen has to admit that it’s nice to have someone to discuss things with, someone who isn’t trying to show her up or backstab her, just reach the most useful and efficient solution. And the spell they end up designing together is complicated and elegant in a way that’s honestly very pleasing - it’s nice to cast something that isn’t just about raw power, pouring chaos into a problem until it’s solved or destroyed.

It takes her three days to cast the spell, because she has to set it on each bedroom individually, and that means she has to get the permission of each Witcher to enter his space - she’s not fool enough to intrude on a Witcher’s den _without_ permission - but once they hear what she’s planning, all of them are willing to allow her in, even if most of them do stand there glowering the whole time she’s working.

A week after her first frustrated night of pacing, though, Yen ventures down into the corridors that lead to the Witchers’ bedrooms, and stands there smiling at the perfect, beautiful silence that surrounds her. No snoring. No enthusiastic moans - those were admittedly amusing, but _would_ be hard to sleep through. It’s very peaceful.

*

A decade down the line, Yen has destroyed armies for her lord and his Witchers. She has poured power into Triss’s healing to haul back Witchers on the very brink of death. She has built portals large enough to send entire hordes of Witchers through, and held them for longer than she thought was possible. She has made herself a name, among the mages of the continent, and that name is _feared_.

And the Witchers of Kaer Morhen value her most highly for her godsdamned _silencing spell_.

Yen has decided to find that hilarious, because otherwise it would be infuriating. She’s one of the most powerful mages on the continent, she’s helped them _conquer_ half the continent...and she still gets regular thanks for the spell which means they don’t have to hear each other snoring.

“It’s just... _really?_ ” she asks Eskel, who chuckles and leans back a little further, lifting his mug of White Gull in a wave that’s probably supposed to be explanatory.

“See, it’s about what we _can’t_ do,” he says, and Yen nods and then shakes her head again. She may have had a little too much wine, but eh, that’s what these nights are _for_.

“Explain,” she demands.

“It’s like, like -” Eskel takes a deep drink. “We can kill armies on our own, yeah? And we could cross the continent if we had to - not as fast, but still. And we’re...used to seeing people die. ‘S nice when they don’t, don’t get me wrong, but dying’s part of being a Witcher, yeah?”

“That’s...deeply disturbing,” Yen decides. Witchers are all just as broken as mages are, she figured _that_ out years ago. Though the ones in Kaer Morhen are starting to heal, Witchers and mages both.

Eskel shrugs. “‘S life. _Anyhow_. We can do a lot of shit ourselves; your magic makes it a lot fucking _easier_ , but still. But the silencing spell - we can’t do _that_. And we’ve all slept a _lot_ better since you did that. That’s worth a fuckin’ _lot_.”

Yen snickers into her goblet of wine. “Geralt snores.”

“Yeah, I know. But not loud, and at least it’s got a bit of a rhythm to it.” Eskel laughs. “Jaskier sings in his sleep.”

Yen puts her goblet down and buries her face in a cushion to muffle her laughter. “Of course he does.”

“‘S pretty,” Eskel says. “Dunno if you noticed, but even the fuckin’ _Bears_ got less grumpy after you put that spell up. Anythin’ that can un-grump _Bears_ is fuckin’ priceless.” He’s starting to slur a little; must’ve been a good batch of White Gull.

“It’s not a very dramatic legacy,” Yen sighs. “But I’ll take it, I suppose.”

Eskel puts his mug down and leans forward, catching her eyes with the great solemnity only available to the extremely drunk. “It’s the small things,” he says gravely. “You make - you make big things out of small things. So the small things _matter_.”

“Huh,” Yen says. That makes a lot of sense. She’ll have to see if it still makes sense in the morning, without the wine making the world pleasantly fuzzy. “Small things.”

“Songs,” Eskel says, nodding. “Silencing spells. Hugs.”

“Hugs,” Yen agrees, and clambers off her chaise longue and right into Eskel’s lap. Eskel, she has discovered only recently, gives the _best_ hugs. They’re warm and all-encompassing and comforting. Tonight is no different; he gathers her close and curls his arms around her, and Yen rests her head on his shoulder and enjoys the feeling of just being held. “Small things.”

“Small things,” Eskel agrees, and Yen hums and snuggles a little closer. Maybe there’s something to being proud of the small things after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for your comments, kudos, and support! I can't tell you how much it means to me. Please come and say hello on tumblr or discord!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Peace Comes To Them On Quiet Feet](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27276280) by [AceOfTigers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceOfTigers/pseuds/AceOfTigers)




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